The political economy of economic policy: industrial entrepreneurs and macroeconomic prices in Brazil (2003-2016)

ABSTRACT

The article aims to discuss aspects of the contemporary Brazilian political economy, showing how Brazilian large manufacturing entrepreneurs acted in defense of their interests in the dispute over the design of economic policy throughout the Partido dos Trabalhadore (Workers’ Party) governments between 2003 and 2016. It is argued that is possible to identify an inter-class dispute over the definition of four macroeconomic prices - the profit rate, the interest rate, the exchange rate, and the wage rate - which places industrial capitalists sometimes against the rentier sector, sometimes against the labor movement in Brazil.

KEYWORDS:
Macroeconomic policy; social classes; Workers’ Party; entrepreneurs